


Under a Tanzanian Sky (the Deja Vu mix)

by puszysty



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-08
Updated: 2013-05-08
Packaged: 2017-12-10 20:14:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/789708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/puszysty/pseuds/puszysty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Remix of fragrantwoods' Under a Tanzanian Sky- http://fragrantwoods.livejournal.com/120629.html.  Written for bsg_remix 2013.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Under a Tanzanian Sky (the Deja Vu mix)

Dr. Bethany Laura Roslin, “Laura” to her friends, wiped the sweat from her brow. It was her first dig in Tanzania, a prospect she had been waiting years for. Now here she was, at the very cradle of civilization. It was an archaeologist’s dream come true. Yet despite the fact that it was her first visit, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she had been here before.

It all started when a couple of poachers killed a wild rhinoceros. They had started to dig a hole to bury the remains as to cover up their crime, when one of their shovels struck a piece of petrified wood. Like all poachers, these men were out to make a profit, and brought back this piece of wood and sold it at a market in Dar es Salaam. From there, the wood made its way to some notable archaeologists from London, who then made a call to Cornell University. The head of the Cornell archaeology department was on a dig in Lebanon already, so the university sent its next in line: Dr. Roslin.

Dr. Roslin brought a team of students, all archaeology majors, to join her and the London team in Tanzania. There was Billy, the young freshman who was eager to get his hands on anything archaeology related; Victoria, a junior not quite as eager but still intrigued by new finds; Cara, a sophomore who thoroughly enjoyed getting her hands dirty; and Bill Adama, technically a junior, though much older than the other students. Bill was ex-military, and had decided to come to college for what he termed his “long overdue” education. Laura particularly liked having Bill around on the dig. Normally surrounded by twenty-year-olds, she appreciated the presence of someone her own age this time around.

While the London team had started in the valley, Dr. Roslin picked a spot on the ridge to start. Something drew her to that spot as a starting point, though Laura couldn’t exact pin down what it was. Perhaps it was the beautiful easterly view the ridge provided.

“Are you about done with that new grid?” Laura called out to Bill. They needed to map out blocks so that Laura could assign particular areas to each student. Their first map had been based off an aerial view of the land, and needed to be redrawn to account for the terrain.

“Almost,” he replied. He had such a strong voice. Commanding, she might describe it. Those who didn’t know better wouldn’t have believed he was her student assistant.

Laura took in a deep breath of Tanzanian air. It was so much fresher than the air back in Ithaca. “It’s beautiful here, isn’t it?” she remarked.

Bill walked away from the table and over to where Laura stood. “Yeah. I’m glad you picked this site to start with. I bet sunrises here are amazing.”

“We’re not here to look at sunrises, Mr. Adama. We’ve got a busy week ahead of us.” She didn’t want to tell him she agreed with him.

“Not my fault this place happens to have a great easterly view, Dr. Roslin,” Bill said, grinning. Laura could almost swear he was flirting with her. She brushed away the thought quickly. She didn’t need to be getting involved with a student, not when it could cost her her job at the university. A professor at Cornell had gotten involved with a student around the time Laura had just started there. There had been such an outcry among alumni and the local community, that the university asked him to resign his tenure. There had been a significant age gap in that instance, but Laura didn’t want to take any chances with her future as a professor.

Laura quickly changed the subject. “Let’s get started. I have a feeling we might find something significant here,” she said. It was never good to have high expectations as an archaeologist, but something in her gut told her that this would be a dig like no other.

“I think I’m having the same feeling,” he said, a bit of reverence in his voice. “It feels good.”

“Hand me the grid Mr. Adama,” Laura said. “I’ll assign you an area, and then we can all get digging.”

.

A couple of days later, Laura was standing on the ridge sipping an iced tea. They hadn’t unearthed anything yet, but Laura had a feeling they were close. A herd of gazelles was grazing in the plain below. Laura wasn’t sure number species this was that she had seen since coming here, but it was more than she could count offhand. “So much life,” she remarked to no one in particular. 

“Couldn’t agree more, Doctor.” 

Laura jumped out of her skin a little. “Bill. I didn’t hear you coming.” 

“Sorry, professor. I didn’t mean to scare you,” said Bill. The glint in his eye told her that while he may not have meant it, he did get a kick out of it. “Cara thinks she may have uncovered something.” 

“Oh fantastic!” Laura exclaimed. “Let’s go check it out, shall we?” 

Laura and Bill walked over to Cara’s excavation area. Cara was squatting in her pit, covered in dust, brush in hand. “What have we got Cara?” Laura asked. 

“Looks like more petrified wood, professor,” said Cara. 

“At the top of a ridge?” asked Laura. “That’s unusual.” 

“Maybe someone built themselves a cabin up here,” said Bill. 

Laura laughed. “Well, if they did, they certainly picked a good spot for it,” she said. “Why don’t we all start clearing Cara’s site and see what exactly we’ve uncovered here.” 

.

Sure enough, after a couple weeks of work unearthing the area, it looked as if a structure had indeed stood there at one time. Whatever civilization had built it must have been pretty sophisticated: the structure was laid out in a perfect square. Laura’s first thought was ancient Egyptian. This area was too far south to have been a part of the ancient Egyptian kingdom, but perhaps the building techniques had made their way down here through traders or soldiers. 

The cabin couldn’t have housed that many people. There was room to sleep possibly five or six, but really only enough room to house at most two people comfortably. Laura closed her eyes for a moment, picturing what it would be like to live in that cabin. _She would have a bed set up in the back, and a little desk to one side for her to work on. Clothes would rest on a makeshift shelf, and foodstuffs would be stored in baskets. Laura would roll out of bed in the morning, just as Bill was returning from making breakfast-_

Laura stopped herself. She shouldn’t be imagining herself with Bill, even if he was about her age. Not only was he a student, but Laura barely knew him outside her role as his professor. 

“Doctor Roslin, I think I’ve got something else here,” said Victoria. Laura went over to her student to see what else she had found in this cabin. Hopefully whatever it was would help to approximate the date the cabin had been built. 

.

The object Victoria had found was a metal square, perhaps a small box. If it had opened at one point, it had deteriorated shut by now. It was a somewhat disappointing find for Laura. Metal objects meant that the cabin probably hadn’t been as old as her initial assessment. Still, holding it in her hands, Laura got the feeling that this object had meant something special to whoever owned it. 

Laura handed the object over to one of the London crew to inspect it. Galen Tyrol was a specialist in ancient tools and should be able to tell them something about the object. 

Tyrol looked the examined the object, then examined it again. “Honestly I have no idea. There’s a line here near the top that tells me this used to open at some point. It looks like a nice lighter, but the rust patterns indicate an age long before the lighter was invented. My best guess? It’s a forgery. If that’s the case, the replicator did an excellent job.” It wasn’t what Laura had wanted to hear. Finding nothing but forgeries after weeks of hard work was an archaeologist’s worst nightmare. 

.

Laura had trouble sleeping that night. She was terribly distraught about the idea that this dig had been for nothing. Even after she was finally able to fall asleep, she kept having nightmares. First it was one where she was diagnosed with cancer. Then, to make matters worse, she dreamt about a nuclear holocaust destroying the entire planet. 

Laura woke up in a cold sweat. Her first instinct was to seek out Bill, confide in him about her nightmares. But she knew she shouldn’t. It was still very early in the morning, and her students probably would not even be awake yet. 

Instead, Laura decided to walk outside for a breath of fresh air. She didn’t think she would ever get over the feeling of peace she got standing here. It felt like home. 

Though it was still early, Laura felt compelled to start digging. So she did. She dug as if this was her very first dig, as if she was just a student-intern, eager to find anything beneath the dirt. In a way, she was. She was a student of secrets beneath the earth, and Laura knew that whatever lay there had something to teach her. 

Bill came to join her shortly after sunrise. “What are you doing up already?” Laura asked. 

“Early riser,” replied Bill. “Too many years in the military. Better question, what are you doing out here already?” 

“Couldn’t sleep,” said Laura. “I guess I just…had to come out here and play in the dirt.” 

“And here I thought all professors were supposed to be refined,” said Bill, clearly flirting with her now. 

Laura decided to flirt back a little. What could it hurt? “Not archaeology professors. Surely you’ve seen Raiders of the Lost Ark.” 

“I have,” replied Bill. “But I’m more into mysteries.” 

Laura perked up. She loved mysteries. “Perhaps Blade Runner is more your speed then.” 

“Figured me out already?” 

“What can I say? You’ve got good taste, Bill.” Laura handed Bill a trowel. Her fingers brushed his as he took it from her. A chill went up Laura’s spine. ‘Get a hold of yourself, Laura,’ she said to herself. ‘Just because he likes mysteries doesn’t give you the green light to get involved.’ 

Laura recomposed herself. “Let’s see what we can find today, shall we?” 

.

It was a few more days before the crew found anything new. Laura continued to have strange dreams, including one where she became the president. Why Laura would ever dream such a thing, she had no idea. Laura certainly didn’t have any political aspirations; she was perfectly happy as an archaeologist. 

The rocks hadn’t seemed like anything out of the ordinary when they uncovered them. But it quickly became evident that the rocks were not a natural formation, and had clearly been arranged by someone. Someone from the London team suggested that rock arrangements of that sort were typical of primitive burials, so they decided to remove some of the rocks to determine if that was the case here. Sure enough, underneath the pile of rocks was a full human skeleton. A fully grown female, from what Laura could tell. Perhaps she had been a resident of the cabin. 

Some of the bones were handed off to a member of the London team who specialized in carbon dating. He returned a few days later with the results. 

“I think you all are going to be surprised by my findings,” said Dr. Baltar. “I think you’ll especially be pleased, Dr. Roslin,” he added with a salacious grin. Laura took a step closer to Bill. Baltar had always seemed a bit skeevy to her, ever since she had met him on a prior dig. She didn’t know if looking attached to Bill would help, but she sure hoped so. 

“Well? Are you going to tell us?” asked Billy eagerly. 

“According to my calculations, this skeleton is approximately 150,000 years old,” said Dr. Baltar. 

“150,000 years?!” exclaimed Laura. “That would make her a contemporary of mitochondrial Eve! Are you sure?” 

“Positive, Laura,” Baltar replied. 

“Dr. Roslin, if you please,” she made a point of correcting him. “And that can’t be right. This woman was much older- in her fifties maybe. All the remains we’ve found from that period before were never much older than seventeen.” 

“I can only tell you what I’ve found Dr. Roslin, and that is what the data suggests,” said Dr. Baltar. “Perhaps our understanding of humanity’s origins has been a misconception up until now.” 

Bill chose that moment to chime in. “I think that means we should keep digging,” he said. 

“I couldn’t agree more,” said Laura. 

.

Walking back to the dig site, Laura took a moment to speak with Bill. “You think we’re going to find something else here?” she asked him. 

“I know we are,” he replied. “I’ve got this feeling.” 

Laura nodded. She had the same feeling. 

“This is going to sound crazy. I’ve been having these dreams lately. I’m in the military, but it’s not any branch I recognize. I don’t recognize any of it, but it feels familiar. Like a former life.” 

Laura stopped in her tracks. Bill noticed, and stopped as well. “What is, doctor?” 

“I’ve been having dreams too. The same sort of thing- like a former life,” she said. 

“Maybe it’s the sun,” suggested Bill. “We’re getting a lot more of it here than in New York. I served in the Gulf, and I’ve seen the sun do strange things to people.” 

“Maybe,” replied Laura. It just seemed too odd to be a coincidence. Maybe something was trying to tell her she shouldn’t be so cautious when it came to Bill. Then again, maybe it was just the sun. 

.

“Dr. Roslin, I’ve got something!” The cry was enough to send her running. Finally, the corroborating evidence they needed for dating the skeleton. 

“What have we got?” she asked. 

“Another skeleton,” said Bill. “I’ve got what I think is a fibula. It looks a little bigger than the bones on the other skeleton; I’m thinking this one is a male.” 

“Another skeleton?” asked Laura. Surely they couldn’t have gotten this lucky. “Let’s get everyone over here, quick.” 

Laura and her students all got down in the dirt. They shoveled and brushed furiously but carefully, wanting to unearth the skeleton as quickly as possible. After an hour, Laura had uncovered a skull, definitely a man’s. A few more brushes below the chin revealed that he was wearing something around his neck. A gap between the neck bones allowed her to remove the necklace without needing to go over the skull. 

The necklace appeared to be metal, not consistent with something 150,000 years old. Laura stood up and stepped away from the skeleton to examine it. Two hexagon-shaped pendants dangled at the end of the chain. Laura used her fingers to wipe the soil off of them. There was something etched into at least one of them. Laura blew off the dust to see if she could read it. 

Laura froze. 

Bill, still squatting near the skeleton, looked up at her. “Dr. Roslin?” he asked. 

“Bill, do you believe in fate?” she asked. 

.

“I can’t believe they had my name on them.” 

“I don’t believe it either,” said Laura, lying on the grass next to Bill, gazing up at the stars. After the initial shock had worn off, Laura had spent the entire day pondering the ancient pendants marked “W. Adama.” It made no sense, yet at the same time, it made perfect sense. Although still technically unidentified, Laura was sure that the female skeleton they had found was a former incarnation of her. By the time night fell, she wasn’t even freaked out by that thought any more. “Do you think we came from up there?” she asked, gesturing at the stars. “Did we go on some sort of intergalactic journey?” 

“I don’t know,” Bill said with a chuckle. “It’d be nice to think we did.” 

“It would be,” replied Laura. 

They lay there in quiet serenity for a few moments before Bill spoke up again. “If all of this has happened before, then all of it has to happen again, right?” 

“I suppose so,” replied Laura. 

“Well then, can I buy you a drink sometime?” asked Bill. 

Laura smiled. “Absolutely.”


End file.
